New Planetarium Shows Offered at Bays Mountain Planetarium
KINGSPORT – Bays Mountain Planetarium is proud to provide a change in its show offerings starting immediately. “Under the Milky Way” will be shown at 4 p.m. Tues.-Fri. and 1 & 4 p.m. on the weekends. “The Case of the Disappearing Planet” will be shown at 2 p.m. on the weekends. Both shows are family-friendly, highly educational, and lots of fun. Tickets are $4/person, free for those aged 5 and under, and free for Bays Mountain Park Association members.
Our feature planetarium show is a double-feature entitled “Under the Milky Way.” It’s a great show that highlights our very own Milky Way galaxy. We look into the structure of our galaxy and how it was formed. We also look back, starting with an ancient Chinese star lore story, to our continuing understanding of what our galaxy is and how large it is. This program is best for late elementary age and above.
The show was written and directed by Bays Mountain Planetarium’s Jason Dorfman.
The show’s second feature is a live presentation utilizing some of the wonderful capabilities of our Carl Zeiss ZKP-4 star projector as well as our digital projection system. We’ll highlight our current night sky, but relate it to our show’s topic. Learn about some other celestial delights found within our galaxy. We conclude our program by transforming our position on earth and travel down to the southern hemisphere and spy the two largest dwarf galaxies that orbit us, the Magellanic Clouds.
The show was produced by Bays Mountain staff and we’re proud to present this program for you.
“The Case of the Disappearing Planet” is a double-feature that looks into the changing status of objects we call planets. It not only covers Pluto, but the temporary planetary status of asteroids as well. The tally of planets in our Solar System has been going up and down for hundreds of years!
This program was written by Robin Byrne, Associate Professor of Astronomy & Physics at Northeast State Community College in Blountville, TN.
She had fun with this program as it features a sly, street-smart gumshoe called Skye Watcher. After a frenzied phone call from a 3rd grade teacher, she collects clues to ¯¬nd out what happened to Pluto.
The second feature lets visitors witness the night sky recreated by our extremely accurate ZKP-4 optical star projector from Carl Zeiss. Not only will we tour the current night sky, but we’ll also spy the current position of Pluto. Pluto itself will be examined for its recent discoveries and how it will affect the New Horizons spacecraft mission.